Human Rights Watch condemns brutality against Armenian protesters

/By AzerNews/

By Laman Sadigova

Human Rights Watch has condemned the brutal beating of opposition member Smbat Hakobyan in Yerevan, Armenia on September 21.

“No peaceful protester should have to fear a brutal beating just for expressing his views,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The effectiveness of the investigation into the vicious assault on Smbat Hakobian will be a true test of how seriously the Armenian government takes its commitment to free expression and peaceful assembly.”

The organization over telephone interviewed an activist who was one of the first people to assist Hakobyan after the beating. She said she found Hakobyan covered in blood at a construction site not far from the protest site.

Several dozen protesters had marched to the headquarters of the ruling Republican Party to express their discontent with the government and claimed that they had received official permission for the protest. However, the Armenian government refuses to grant its people the right to free speech, attempting to keep them silent.

Armenia has clear obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights to respect the right to peaceful assembly as well as to ensure the security of those exercising that right and protect them from unlawful interference by others.

However, the criminal and aggressive government is ready to take any means necessary to ensure that its power stay intact.